Public school in Iloilo records 36 chickenpox cases

ILOILO CITY -- A public elementary school in Tubungan town, Iloilo had recorded a total of 36 chickenpox cases from January 15 to March 3, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) said.

In an interview on Wednesday, Dr. Patricia Grace Trabado, PHO head said the cases were observed as patients sought treatment at the Rural Health units (RHU) and private clinics in Tubungan.

All the cases were recorded in Cadabdab Elementary School with 21 male and 15 female students affected.

Trabado said affected pupils might still be attending school even though they were infected which resulted to its transmission.

She emphasized that the spread of the infection might have been prevented if the children were advised not to attend school with the onset of infection.

“If a child is showing chickenpox symptoms, especially when he or she was previously exposed to an affected person, then the pupil will be advised to stay at home,” she said.

Trabado said the source of the infection came from the first patient working in Iloilo City but lives in Tubungan town.

“The patient might have a family member that attends school in Cadabdab. From there, we see where the infection originated,” she said. Trabado, however, did not give figures of the disease other than that from the school.

The RHUs and private clinics were able to monitor and manage the cases, Trabado said.

All the student patients were discharged, given medication, and let the viral infection take its course.

“And eventually, the patients recovered,” she said.

However, Trabado warns that a child with chickenpox can get secondary infection when he or she scratches the blisters, creating skin lesions.

She added that cases of chickenpox and mumps are mostly observed during the summer season.

Trabado said patients with chickenpox experience fever and headache in the first one or two days before the itchy blister rash appears. (PNA)